DJustice's 1973 Pontiac "Chief torque" formula

[Djustice]

Submitting my sesonal summer ride:
(My daily driver is a 1995 Audi A4 1.8 non turbo)

Bougth this 1973 Firebird Formula in november 2012, from a fellow norwegian, he in turn imported it from sacramento california in 2010.

according to the VIN it is a real formula that was deliverd with a 400 motor, it has been replaced with a 455 with a year correct casting code 73.

Mods (as far as i can see)

Heads are swapped: originally huge 110 cc combustion chamber 4x heads with an CR rigth below 8:1

- new heads are 1977 6X heads with hardend valve seats 101 - 99 cc C chamber est. CR: 9:0(1)

- edelbrock performer intake manifold (i am lead to believe that this manifold is not as good as the original cast iron ones, but a lot ligther.

- points ignition is swapped out for a pertronix flamthrower HEI Distributor

- Carburettor is a holley 750 CFM vacuum secoundary

- custom home made functioning ram air aircleaner (not made by me)

all was well with me and my heavy rigth foot until one day i broke something:

Oops...

And who in their rigth mind left stock stamped steel rocker arms on all exhaustports?!?!
this was an accident waiting to happen.
We measured springpreassure on the obviously not stock dual valvesprings:
140 Lbs Closed preassure!! That is rollercam territory or a really agressive flat tappet cam, no wonder the stamped steel one broke.

Next inspecting pushrods for warping; found out it was Comp cams 0.80 wall thickness Hi-tech pushrods with a 9.450 length (stock is 9.125)

so i got ordered parts from summit:

ACF-R45TSSPARK PLUGAShipped on
7/11/2013$1.978$15.76

CCA-503-16SEAL VALVE STEMAShipped on
7/11/2013$21.971$21.97

CCA-611-16VALVE LOCKS 10 DEG 11/32"AShipped on
7/11/2013$21.971$21.97

CCA-7704-1PUSHROD-LENGTH CHECKINGAShipped on
7/11/2013$19.971$19.97
CCA-501-16SEAL VALVE STEMAShipped on
7/22/2013$5.971$5.97

CCA-621-16LASH CAPS 11/32 STEM 0.080AShipped on
7/22/2013$31.971$31.97

OER-59646631970-73 FIREBIRD TAIL LAMP LENAShipped on
7/22/2013$77.971$77.97

OTC-4573UNIVERSAL OH VALVE SPRING COMPAShipped on
7/22/2013$18.971$18.97

PRO-66779VALVE LASH WRENCH SETAShipped on
7/22/2013$19.971$19.97

SCC-SCP1052BLROCKER SETAShipped on
7/22/2013$232.971$232.97

SLP-55-400CAM & LIFTER LUBEAShipped on
7/22/2013$4.251$4.25

SLP-MV-1233CVALVE STEM SEALAShipped on
7/22/2013$0.2616$4.16

SLP-ST-2092VALVE STEM SEALSAShipped on
7/22/2013$1.3916$22.24

WMR-W163CWIDE GAP SPARK PLUG & GAP TOOLAShipped on
7/22/2013$2.931$2.93

Oh man.. that was a lot of money.. + Norwegian tax +Rush shipping... = Flat wallet.

but i got a smile on my face when the postman handed me these:

i wasted no time throwing them in a oilbath:

removed the old rocker arms, and yanked the valvesteam seals at the same time, they have seen better days:

Slapped on hardened Lash caps on the valvestems to clear the ratiner with the new rocker arms, and measure valvetrain geometry:

Dead on centre valvestem! i am good to go with installation:

And the "Chief" was very happy with his new parts!


GRrrrrrr..

As low as you can go... until i scraped those flowmasters

Parked "downtown"


and videos can be found on my youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/djsutice0/videos

Thanks for Looking in my thread ;D

 

[JrDarknes]

Badass car dude. Probably my favorite year of the firebird.

 

[Cano]

455 + 6X heads = OMFG YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH I have a new favorite GTP car! I've always loved the first of the 2nd gen F-Bodys, and the Pontiac over the Chevy. This car makes me giddy like a college girl. Awesome.

I want to see that custom rammer filter.

 

[Djustice]

Back when the car had an edelbrock carb that ran like crap, but it is still in use on my holley, migth shave of the airhorn on the carb, and add a k&n stub stack to help aid airspeed into the carb

Looks like this:

it is the little Black insert sandwiched between the top and bottom lid inside the airfilter, since the home fabricated airfilter has a compleley flat bottom, and i guess air collides with the chocke horn creating turbulence, insted of flowing smoothly down the ports

 

[Slash]

Oh my god. Best car on GTP hands down.


You are somewhat right about the intake. The cast ones tend to produce a bit more torque but the Performer intakes tend to be on par with stock, just a bit lighter (at least from what I've read).

 

[savage388]

Beautiful car,quote="Slashfan, post: 9024771, member: 189725"]Oh my god. Best car on GTP hands down.


You are somewhat right about the intake. The cast ones tend to produce a bit more torque but the Performer intakes tend to be on par with stock, just a bit lighter (at least from what I've read).[/quote]
The performer is genuine garabage, they perform just like a stock cast one all for almost as much as the performer rpm which is one of the better dual plane intakes.

 

[Slash]

Beautiful car,quote="Slashfan, post: 9024771, member: 189725"]Oh my god. Best car on GTP hands down.


You are somewhat right about the intake. The cast ones tend to produce a bit more torque but the Performer intakes tend to be on par with stock, just a bit lighter (at least from what I've read).

The performer is genuine garabage, they perform just like a stock cast one all for almost as much as the performer rpm which is one of the better dual plane intakes.[/quote]
I've never heard anything good about either. The only advantage they have is the lighter weight.

 

[savage388]

The performer is genuine garabage, they perform just like a stock cast one all for almost as much as the performer rpm which is one of the better dual plane intakes.

I've never heard anything good about either. The only advantage they have is the lighter weight.[/quote]
I've heard good gains from the rpm, it made good power for me the whole way up to 5500 rpm on my big 383.
Enough hijacking though, pm me if you want @Slashfan.
Beautiful car though, must be terrible to get parts for though. 👍

 

[Djustice]

Got som parts and som time, starting to refresh the engine bay (Work in progress)
-new 10 mm davis unified ignition livewires
-new BOP engeneering welded alu valvecovers (to clear new valvetrain) and new breathers
-steel core valvecovergaskets
-new K&N airfilters
-repainted aircleaner and put on a gm approved reprodction engine decal
- minor engine block paint touchup

Parts still to be installed:
-Powerbond SFI 18.1 race harmonic balancer
-new oilfilterhousing an mechanical oil presure fitting with K&N performance oilfilter (all assebled and painted)
-New front oil seal in timingcover
-new rear heavy duty swaybar hangers (beeing produced as we speak, and shipped from F-bodywharehouse as son as they are done)
-1" rear swaybar (all painted with new bushings and brackets)
-new chrome svivel thermostat housing
-Backdrive linkage repair kit (new washer spring and bushing) in the mail now

To do: braid all vacuum hoses in black nylon and heatcrimp ends + cut to presise lengths for a neat look.
Braid test:

 

[Djustice]

oh almost forgot about this, done some stuff to it since last i updated this thread:

New solid 1" swaybar with GEN II swaybar hangers, the old stock one was really bendt out of shape.

New:

Also got rid off those awful pvc vacuum and rubber/steel fuel lines with russel lines, including line to vacuum modulator on transmission. Also completley picked apart the holley 750, and rebuildt with trick kit and polished it and hacked off the chokehorn and eletrick choke assembley for more airflow. I could se scratchmarks on the aircleaner lid from the choke/airhorn, so it had to go.
Got the stubstack and integrated it into the aircleaner.

Shiny!

And a new distributor + vacuum advance tuning.

Done before and after this car show:

First test of new Fuel and vacuum lines:


And there is still more to do, need a new round of shaving valvecovers as they are not completley thigth++

 

[Ibonibo]

Cool car and awesome work on it. Is it just me or don't the picture show up in the first post?

 

[Djustice]

Oh almost forgot: the balancer that i tougth had "slipped" the elastometer......

Had actually cracked at the keyway.. I am sooo lucky i got this in time, probably minutes fro grenading my whole block.
Got the new one installed, SFI approved, opted for the 12000 rpm one from powerbond so i have something overkill, since i most defenetly would not like a grenading balancer.

 

[Djustice]

Cool car and awesome work on it. Is it just me or don't the picture show up in the first post?

I have exeeded my free limit at imageshack, so they bloked all of my pictures, trying Postimage as a host for now
*Edit*
Re-uploaded some of the pictures from the new host.

 

[Slash]

Should have told me you wanted a Holley Tric Kit. I've got a few in the garage.

 

[Djustice]

Should have told me you wanted a Holley Tric Kit. I've got a few in the garage.

Now that would be stealing
i was suprised how logical it all was to rebuild a holley, no major issues doing it for the first time, although i forgot to plug the airpassage from where the eletric choke was and in to the venturi, found out and now it idles a lot better, there was even a blockoff gasket for it in the trick kit +++ loads of gasket i did not use.

 

[Slash]

Yup they aren't too bad.

What model carb is that? It's not a DP because those are manual choke, I couldn't remember if they made electric choke 750's. I've only run 625's and 650s.

 

[Djustice]

its a 4160 vacuum secondary (metering block primary, metering plate secondary) so i could use a "better" carburettor, but still id like a vacuum secondary but with a meteringblock.
I could buy a conversion kit, but i think ill go for a new one, AED, quickfuel, barry grant or maybe one of those new streetdemons : http://www.demoncarbs.com/types/street_demon.asp

 

[Slash]

4160's are good carburetors. I didn't know they ran up to 750cfm though, I though 600 and 650 was the biggest 4160's went. 4150's I know went pretty high. I've got a 650 vacuum secondary w/ electric choke on our motor ATM with the kickdown rod.

The Street Demons are good carbs but I have heard they are kind of a PITA to tune. But then again, most Holleys are.

 

[Djustice]

Since my car was not optioned with rally gauges originally i decided to add a tach, but i really dont like tachometers bolted to the dashpad or steering colum.

First i got a donor Tach from a 79 firebird, and stripped it down as good as i could so it would fit in the stock gauge pod, Lets say it was functional, but not pretty...
http://s25.postimg.org/d9vbz84v3/79_tach.jpg[/img]

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So after some time i wanted a nicer and more permanent solution, started by vinyl wrapping my dash bezel.

http://s25.postimg.org/lc3n6zbfj/image.jpg[/img]

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Better, but tach is not looking pretty (clock face is gone)

So i order up a speedhut 4" 8k rpm with integrated shiftligth.

so now i am at this point:

http://s25.postimg.org/f2y8njq1r/IMG_1016.jpg[/img]

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My plan is to go for a gps speedo with integrated fuel level, and an oil preassure gauge with warning ligth where the fuel level is now.
I have not cut any wires from I.P. loom, just tapped into them, and saved original "idiotligths" so for now the gauge pod with pcb is untouched minus led bulbs.
This way i can lift it out and keep everything and put it back to original if i have a brain fart (some people will claim i already had a brain fart with what i have done )


And my radiator started leaking, so soon i will get a alu radiator with 2x 12" eletric fans to install.

Today i got a phone call from a lady that did a fenderbender on my poncho, very little damage, but a few surface scratches (seems to be just clear coat) but also 2 very minor dents in the same location.

 

[Djustice]

 

[Djustice]

New radiator bougth, and wires are heat shrinked with nylon braided wraps. also got a bodyshop to respray my front bumper and grill inserts + realign lower valance panel. Grill inserts look better in matte black
no more bumper scratches.

 

[Slash]

New radiator bougth, and wires are heat shrinked with nylon braided wraps. also got a bodyshop to respray my front bumper and grill inserts + realign lower valance panel. Grill inserts look better in matte black
no more bumper scratches.

Looks fantastic!

 

[Cano]

Have you ever thought about installing a front spoiler, Trans-Am style?

 

[Djustice]

Oh yes Cano!
That is one of the reasons i had a body-shop realign the lower valance.
now a 5 pice set vil fit nicely on the car, but solid alu subframe bushings and core support mounts need to be fitted to thigthen the front end. then ill do a danko kit

 

[Cano]

Oh yes Cano!
That is one of the reasons i had a body-shop realign the lower valance.
now a 5 pice set vil fit nicely on the car, but solid alu subframe bushings and core support mounts need to be fitted to thigthen the front end. then ill do a danko kit

Absolutely awesome. Be sure to post pics and whatnot!

 

[Djustice]

Well i dowe into changing the diferential.. oh Boy is this ever time consuming! 14 tries at pinion depth vs left/rigth carrier shims, to produce an acceptable gear wear pattern, and staying within backlash spec on the ring gear...
been a month since i removed the whole rear axle assembley and parked it in my utility shed, just about to do final assembley and and mount it back in the car, just need a shop press to press on new timken cone bearings on the pinion shaft.














images upload

 

[Djustice]

I also got Headman headers 1 3/4 primary pipe laying ready for install, so i took a quick video of the sound with stock cast iron manifolds.
So i will have something to compare with when i install headers.

 

[Slash]

I've never noticed a difference between stock manifolds and headers to the sound. Cams change that way more.

 

[Djustice]

I dont think it will drastically change the sound, but it will be louder, the thick cast iron material does muffle the sound, And the relativley thin walled header tubes does little in the way of insualting sound.
in adition my downtubes from the cast iron manifolds are badly compression bendt, and seems to the volume of 1 primary header tube..

The car is finally gonna breath and perform to its potential (until the next bottleneck is removed)

 

[Slash]

It does muffle it but I don't think to the point it would be really audible. Could be just me though.